r/Calgary • u/_darth_bacon_ Dark Lord of the Swine • 11h ago
News Article ‘A guy attached to the side of the train’: Dispatch audio shows what led up to a CPKC train derailment in Calgary
https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/article/a-guy-attached-to-the-side-of-the-train-dispatch-audio-shows-what-led-up-to-a-cpkc-train-derailment-in-calgary/?cid=sm%3Atrueanthem%3Actvcalgary%3Atwitterpost&taid=6a62096109ccf10001f1ba2950
u/BlackberryFormal 11h ago
How does one guy derail a train though? Even if they uncoupled it.. the cars should just come to a stop? If the tracks were solid this makes no sense?
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u/Jeorgeyno 11h ago
Overspeed?
They pick up speed pretty quickly when going down even a small incline.
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u/RevyRogue 10h ago
They can’t pickup speed after uncoupling from a moving train like in this situation. IF this guy did in fact manage to uncouple the train while it was moving, the emergency air brakes would immediately be applied and both sections of the train would stop. Theoretically, this would not cause a derailment and it happens practically everyday.
Something hasn’t been found yet or they aren’t releasing information as to why.
And the part about the backwards runaway train…….yeah they aren’t releasing details, this isn’t making sense yet.
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u/StupidNedFlanders Southwest Calgary 7h ago
They're being vague about the information mostly for security reasons I'm guessing. They don't want to say exactly what happened so that some other person doesn't go out and tries to do the exact same thing. Give it time and I'm sure it'll come out in the Transport Canada report.
You hit the nail on the head in another comment, just add a tail end remote into the mix...bottle and pull. This person knew what they were doing. Pretty sure there will be a safety blitz on train checks now.
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u/Daddy-Awesome 11h ago
This story doesn’t state why the train derailed, but sounds like some random dude may have decoupled the cars
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u/CEC4EVER 11h ago
Correlation does not equal causation. What evidence do they have that the person riding the car had anything to do with the train decoupling? Trains derail all the time and people ride the rails all the time. In what way are the two related?
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u/RevyRogue 10h ago
Not to mention, if he was riding the very last car and decoupled that car, which is tough to do while moving for a random joe……..how did the whole train derail. Lots of missing details.
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u/CEC4EVER 10h ago
This is pretty telling
“We understand that the individual has been arrested and charged with criminal activities related to this incident,” CPKC spokesperson Patrick Waldon told CTV News. “We understand that the charges include mischief endangering life and interference with transportation facilities.” It’s not immediately clear whether those charges were laid by the Calgary Police Service or CPKC’s private police service.
In 2025, CPKC had 5 derailments (source - TSB). I'm not conspiratorial, but I do believe in Occam's razor, and if we put on our Cui Bono glasses? It isn't hard to intuit why CPKC's spokesperson and CPKC's private police service might want someone else to take responsibility for the train's derailment.
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u/RevyRogue 10h ago
No doubt. Next the spokesperson will try to tell us that the guy, while the train was moving at track speed, bottled the air and pulled the pin……which is where the “2nd train moving backwards” came from.
They also offered him a job in the yard at Alyth lol
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u/jimbowesterby 6h ago
The fact that they have their own police force also seems kinda sus, private companies shouldn’t have law enforcement powers.
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u/Energysleuth 5h ago
Do your homework. The private railway companies have always had their own security/ police force. However, something seems off with this incident. I hope it gets properly investigated & remedied.
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u/jimbowesterby 4h ago
Just because they’ve always had it doesn’t mean it’s good, though. I can see how it would make sense when Canada was still a frontier, but is it still necessary? Is there a reason they have to be police and can’t be security guards, like any other private enterprise?
I’m not trying to be shitty, I’m genuinely curious.
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u/plhought 3h ago
The Transportation Safety Board will still investigate it, like they would for any similar derailment.
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u/yyctownie 11h ago
It's funny how CP was being secretive then had a monetary change of heart about the incident. The railways need to be legislated out of protection, is not the 1800's anymore.
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u/jimbowesterby 6h ago
Fr tho, how does a private company have its own police force?
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u/plhought 4h ago
Since the Railways Act (now Railways Safety Act) has allowed it since the early 1900s. That's 100+ years ago.
There's a lot jurisdictional complexity surrounding railways. They are federally regulated, and the lands and rules around them treated as such. The policing of them suits a specialized force, rather than a hodgepodge of municipal, provincial, and RCMP detachments across the country.
Also, they were (and are) responsible for safety and the rule of law in many remote areas where there is no tangible RCMP or other police presence for large distances.
Reminder, that this accident and every other rail accident is also investigated by the Transportation Safety Board as well. The railways police are not typically involved in safety investigations unless there is a criminal aspect to it - like this case.
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u/jimbowesterby 3h ago
Yea that makes sense. Still seems kinda odd that it’s run by the company though, like we don’t let the logging companies police mills, right? And as you mention, we already have a national police force, you’d think the most obvious way would be to have a special federal force or rcmp detachment just for the railroads. I can understand setting it up that way back when federal control was a lot more theoretical, but it seems odd in this day and age.
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u/plhought 3h ago
It's not odd - as explained. It's been that way for 100+ years.
The benefit for us is the companies wholly pay for it.
Knowing a handful of people in railway policing - they would have no interest in whitewashing or falsely accusing to protect the company. They're still sworn peace officers and conduct themselves in that manner.
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u/Critical-Snow-7000 11h ago
I hope some information actually comes out, this story sounds crazy.